Prospects of Neurotrophic Factors for Parkinson’

Prospects of Neurotrophic Factors for Parkinson’s Disease: Comparison of Protein and Gene Therapy

Online Ahead of Editing: July 15, 2015

Dr. Andrii Domanskyi
Insititute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; andrii.domanskyi@helsinki.fi
Prof. Mart Saarma
Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; mart.saarma@helsinki.fi
Dr. Mikko Airavaara
Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki,

Neurotrophic factors (NTFs) hold a great potential as therapeutic agents in the treatment of neurodegenerative conditions, including Parkinson’s disease (PD), where the progressive loss of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) causes severe motor symptoms. There is extensive evidence that in preclinical animal models of PD NTFs are both neuroprotective and neurorestorative. Particularly glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), neurturin (NRTN), cerebral dopamine neurotrophic factor (CDNF) and mesencephalic astrocyte derived neurotrophic factor (MANF) have shown great potential to restore dopamine neurocircuitry.

http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/...alCode=hum